Can you talk about new materials? Are we using just materials that exist in the world today, or have any new materials been invented, maybe that we discovered 900 years in the future on an alien planet?

We will be using materials that aren't in the world. The alien species is probably going to be where we see most of that happen. And it's being explored right now for the Xi'an, for example, and will be explored for the other species, like the Tevarin.